Sneak Peek - The Last Angel: The Hungry Stars, Chapter 12 (Patreon)

I have the rough draft done and have begun the editing process, so I'm aiming to have this done by the end of the week, depending on how things go. In the meantime, here's an excerpt from one of the opening scenes of this chapter. Stay tuned for more!

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Grace cocked her head, sharing a brief glance with Allyria. There’d never been many non-Confederate colonies and those that had existed had either fallen early in the with the Compact, or traded their independence for the protection of the Confederate Navy. One colony had steadfastly refused to ally themselves with Earth. They’d been on the side of the Confederacy farthest from the Compact’s advance and never participated in any of the fighting. It hadn’t saved them. The Compact had wanted all of humanity dead and it hadn’t mattered in the slightest what their political allegiances or personal ideologies had been.

Allyria understood the same issues. “Howseparate?”

“Nibiru is extremely distant from what we knew as human space,” Keating added. “It took the original Siegland Expedition more than a century of warp travel to reach it. We had no contact with the Confederacy or anyone else. In fact, until recently we believed we were the last of humanity.”

Grace blinked. The Rally refugee fleet had run just as far to reach safety – but they’d been fleeing genocide. They’d also lost a lot of their ships – tens of thousands of people – during the journey. She couldn’t imagine why any separatists would subject themselves to that when they didn’t have to. “Why did you travel so far?” she asked.  “There must have been more suitable worlds closer.”

“They weren’t suitable,” Oksana told the woman. “We followed the Prophet’s visions to our new world.”

“Prophet?”

“The Prophet Siegland,” the first officer explained. “He led us out from Earth’s domination to our new world. We’ve based our entire society around his teachings.”

“Everything we have, we owe to him,” Keating said with a nod at Fantome. “He’s the most influential man in our history, and his works are the cornerstone of our faith.”

“He sounds like quite a leader,” Grace said diplomatically. She vaguely recalled a ‘Siegland’ from her studies of pre-Confederacy history, but she couldn’t recall anything more than that. Whoever the prophet was, he was obviously important to these people.

“When we have more time, I’d be honoured to tell you more about Nibiru, our history and the Prophet,” Obed said. “But that might run a little longer.”

“I’d love to hear it,” Grace told him. She could tell Allyria had a question, so she looked over to her companion.

“You said you had no contact with the rest of the galaxy until recently,” the Verrish pointed out. “What changed?”

“The mountain came to Henrik,” Obed said with a wry smile, though he looked at Grace when he spoke. “It was actually this ship that made contact. You’re wondering how we knew your names.”

“That hasbeen a question that’s come up...” she demurred. In fact, it was the very next thing on her mind. Who are you and how did you know about us?